1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a segment structure of a rubber elastic material mounted on a wheel or an endless rubber track of civil engineering machines, construction machines such as a power shovel or vehicles used off-road for adding a driving power.
2. Description of the Related Art
A wheel structure is well known in which hollow segments of a rubber elastic material are continuously mounted with bolts and nuts or the like on a rim constituting the base of the vehicle wheel. In a wheel disclosed in JP-A No. 4-500485, for example, each segment has a hollow section formed along the width of the wheel, side sections defining the hollow section support each other, and the working vibrations are relaxed by the deformation of the side sections.
However, the supporting force derived from the contact between the side sections of the segments mounted on the wheel is comparatively small. When a large load is to be supported during the operation, therefore, the side sections are unavoidably deformed (distorted) considerably leading to a low stability. Also, since the sides of the segments are always in contact with each other, the friction heat is generated as the segment sides rub each other when the vehicle is driven at high speed, for example. This results in melting the segments or generating a smoke, thereby leading to the disadvantage of a shorter segment life. Our running test conducted at 50 km/h shows that smoke is generated and the segments sides are melted in as short a time as 9 minutes.